New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS): India's economy grew at 7.6% in the July-September quarter of the current financial year despite a slowdown in agriculture as the robust performance of the manufacturing sector and high government expenditure on big ticket infrastructure projects kept up the growth momentum, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics on Thursday.

The growth in the second quarter is a tad lower than the first quarter growth of 7.8 per cent due to the erratic monsoon hitting the farm sector. India’s GDP growth rate for the first half of 2023-24 now works out to 7.7 per cent.

The agriculture sector posted a growth rate of a mere 1.2 per cent in the July-Sept quarter compared to 3.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

However, the manufacturing sector clocked a robust growth rate of 13.9 per cent, which, along with the high government capex expenditure, went a long way to make up for the setback. Private consumption remained strong during the quarter which helped to lift the growth of the manufacturing sector.

The services and mining sectors also posted a strong performance during the quarter.